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Dr. Ransford Yaw Gyampo, a research fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has called for a constitutional review into the powers of appointment by the President of the Republic.

According to him, the appointment powers of the President under the 1992 Constitution are too extensive and deserve to be reviewed in order not to adversely affect the economy.

Delivering a lecture at a roundtable discussion by the IEA on the theme "Dealing with Winner-Takes-All Politics: The Case for a Review of the Appointing Powers of the President", Dr. Gyampo noted that "the exercise of these powers in a manner that benefits only some party supporters facilitates the WTA politics as it deepens the feeling of marginalization among a cross section of the population who do not belong to the ruling party."

He further stressed that the Winner-Takes-All politics (WTA) which invariably means the President has the ultimate powers to appoint may result in a government full of the President's cronies which "leads to a waste of manpower as it deprives and drains the nation of the needed human resources for development. Appointment of only party cronies as heads of institutions and ministries without recourse to meritocracy has the potential of adversely affecting the independence, professional competence and performance of these institutions, particularly those established under the constitution to protect citizens and act as agents of restraint on executive power."

He therefore recommended that the appointment to constitutional bodies should remain under the authority of the President, but however emanate from designated institutions which should include the "Electoral Commission (EC), Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Chief Justice, Supreme Court Judges, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), and the Inspector-General of Police and Auditor-General".

The roundtable discussion held on Wednesday, June 21, in Accra was chaired by former Commissioner of the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Justice Emile Short and the presentation was led by Dr. Ransford Gyampo, Senior Research Fellow of the IEA.

Present at the event were Hon. Mustapha Hamid, Minister of Information, Hon. Ama Dokuaa Asiamah Adjei, Deputy Minister of Information, Hon. Kwaku Rickett-Hagan, former Deputy Minister of Finance, H.E Ron Strikker, Ambassador of the Royal Netherlands, H.E Kim Sungsoo, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea and Mr. Isaac Annan, Human Rights Director, CHRAJ among others.